by Nate Ryan, USA TODAY Sports

by Nate Ryan, USA TODAY Sports

The exploits of the most famous woman in racing have become so ubiquitous, the reaction to Friday's confirmation of Danica Patrick's relationship with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -- which virtually is unprecedented in professional sports, never mind auto racing -- felt muted and borderline blasé.

NASCAR put out a guileless statement that almost seemed tantamount to wishing the new couple a life of happiness together. Teams and sponsors said their drivers' personal lives were their own business. Patrick breezily joked to the Associated Press about having a boyfriend named Richard and told fans on Twitter that "the bump-drafting jokes are cracking me up! Let the fun begin."

But there also is a serious side to two rookies being romantically linked that could have a pervasive and insidious effect on the Sprint Cup Series, which spent the past week exhaustively trying to gin up excitement for a new race car during its annual preseason media tour.

Friday's news will overshadow the much-ballyhooed debut of the Gen 6. It will overshadow the prerace buildup to the Daytona 500, which often sets the tone for the season. It will overshadow emerging superstar Brad Keselowski as he begins a title defense he has hinted will transform the sport.

It threatens to overshadow everything else in NASCAR for the next 10 months, depending on what transpires on the racetrack.

That probably will cause grumbling among other drivers -- just as the fawning over Patrick in the wake of becoming the first woman to lead the Indianapolis 500 planted lingering seeds of resentment among her Izod IndyCar Series peers. Though Patrick won in 2008 and earned the respect of her rivals, the chirping over the disproportionate attention she received never faded amid her omnipresent face incessantly adorning Super Bowl commercials, magazine covers and movie premieres.

Stenhouse will add a combustible dimension to Danicamania that could open a Pandora's box of sticky scenarios in an arena where the action occurs at 200 mph and the stakes are life-threatening.

Every move that could be interpreted as being influenced by their romance will be heavily scrutinized. There is an incessant list of prodding questions that could cause Tony Stewart, Patrick's mercurial team owner, to blow his top before the green flag even falls at Daytona International Speedway next month.

What if Patrick appears to yield the outside line to her boyfriend more easily than her competitors? What if Stenhouse seems to cut his girlfriend a break by allowing her a lap back? What if they retaliate against a driver for wrecking their paramour or they favor each other over their teammates in drafting?

The answer from both drivers' camps is that their competitive fire will squelch any speculation of playing favorites.

The real answer is nobody knows how it will play out. There is virtually no precedent for such a scenario.

Patty Moise and Elton Sawyer were married while both raced in the Nationwide Series in the 1990s, and they both said it had no impact on performance.

Yet neither had a fraction of the high profile owned by Patrick, or even Stenhouse, a two-time Nationwide Series champion. Moise and Sawyer also raced in a simpler era, before NASCAR gained a national platform and social media created the increasing fishbowl existence of 21st century America and its reality-show-driven obsession with the salacious and sordid details of celebrities' lives.

NASCAR has been relatively insulated from such muck as a sponsor-driven and image-conscious sport that often must toe the line of political correctness in the name of pleasing corporate America. Surely, some might be wondering how that delicate balance could be tipped if TMZ began trying to infiltrate the drivers' motor home lot -- where their personal lives mostly are kept under lock and key on race weekends -- with regularity.

Drag racing legend Shirley Muldowney, who was involved with fellow champion Connie Kalitta during her career, said there would be risks for Patrick and Stenhouse if there was a perception either was affected by interest in the other.

"The fans are not stupid in any form of motor sports," Muldowney said in an interview Friday on SiriusXM's NASCAR channel. "They know what they're looking at. If she's guilty of that, they will stone her to death and she will never live it down. And vice versa.

"I'm not even going to suggest (Patrick) would go there. I really think she has that desire deep down in to be a winner."

Muldowney, who is about as straight a shooter as you'll find in motor sports, better be right for NASCAR's sake. Otherwise, there could be many losers.